Prospect Park Sues ABC For $25M Over ONE LIFE TO LIVE & ALL MY CHILDREN Licensing Agreement

Prospect Park has field a breach of contract lawsuit against ABC, which licensed the shows to Prospect Park two years ago. Deadline was first to report the news..

According to the complaint, which is now being filed with the Los Angeles Superior Court, Prospect Park claims that ABC has been breaking the licensing agreement and sabotaging Prospect Park’s efforts to continue ALL MY CHILDREN and ONE LIFE TO LIVE online. They refer to the day ABC canceled AMC and OLTL as "Soapocalyspe".

“These shows will go forward, and Prospect will address its rights in Court,” the suit said. "Regardless of how successful Prospect may be, the fact remains that ABC did not deliver what it promised, Prospect did not get what it paid for, and Prospect is now entitled to recover more millions of dollars in damages for ABC’s egregious conduct.” The complaint pegs the monetary damages sought at at least $25 million.

The lawsuit follows a couple of months of building up tensions and threats of legal action between Prospect Park and ABC centered on OLTL actors who had been starring on ABC’s General Hospital since the cancellation of OLTL by ABC. Prospect Park attempted to get them back, which created a standoff with ABC. The last straw came last week when ABC announced that OLTL’s Kristen Alderson, Michael Easton and Roger Howarth will return to GH on May 10, presumably as new characters.

According to the lawsuit, after taking over AMC and OLTL in 2011, Prospect Park, in “a gesture of good will”, allowed ABC “to borrow seven OLTL characters to appear on a limited basis” on the network’s soap General Hospital for the actors playing them can have employment. (It is understood that, despite having the characters on a temporary basis, ABC signed the actors playing them in long-term deals, making their return to OLTL even more difficult. Howarth recently made a short-term deal with Prospect Park to do a stint on OLT before returning to GH.) Prospect Park claims that in the arrangement, they retained “approval rights over ABC’s use of the OLTL characters. But “for over a year, ABC outright failed and refused to consult with Prospect on any storylines involving these characters, rendering Prospect’s approval rights meaningless.” With that, “in the ultimate act of bad faith, ABC inexplicably killed off two OLTL characters on loan to GH by having their car forced off a cliff. ABC effectively killed another major OLTL character, who was not even licensed to ABC, by revealing that this long-standing OLTL character is in fact another character (alter ego) on GH.”

Prospect Park also claims ABC breached the two side’s licensing agreement by refusing to hand over to Prospect Park the URLs for the two soaps the company had purchased, onelifetolive.com and allmychildren.com. “These URLs are not only critical to establishing public awareness for the re-launch, but they are part of the rights paid for by Prospect. It is understood that ABC also recently declined to air ads for OLTL because it features prominently an actor who is on GH.

Despite the fact that ABC retains some ownership in AMC and OLTL under the licensing agreement, Prospect Park argues that ABC is trying to sabotage the two show’s transition online. The complaint claims that “at least one ABC executive” involved in the decisions to how to handle OLTL actors on GH, “has openly declared his desire to see Prospect fail” and suggests that the network’s actions may be driven by “a basic fear of embarrassment if Prospect succeeds.”

In an announcement earlier this year, Prospect Park’s The Online Network revealed its plans to re-introduce the beloved franchise, through a groundbreaking content deal that will bring premium first-run, broadcast-quality programming to a mass market audience via the Internet. Brand new 30-minute episodes of ALL MY CHILDREN and ONE LIFE TO LIVE will be launched each weekday starting April 29 and available to stream online in HD (when available) via the free Hulu.com service and to subscribers of Hulu Plus making these venerable dramas available in a new format that suits the viewing habits of the digital generation. In addition, the iTunes Store will offer both series via iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Apple TV and Mac or PC.

I agree Thomas PP took too long for the shows to begin and the actors were out of work and have families to support. I watch GH and have been happy to watch them there. I can't see how GH iss going to have them become new characters when they interacted so much with the old actors.

Could ABC have some of the same reasoning/concerns that P&G has about streaming TV programs, in this case serials, online?

I ask because P&G doesn't seem to want to fully give up rights to 'As The World Turns' or 'Guiding Light' just as ABC doesn't seem to fully want to give up rights to 'All My Children' or 'One Life to Live.' There seems to be something more to all of this. What's the scoop? I know you must know. :-)

I hope PP wins...that'll show ABC they can't just walk all over the fans of those soaps and get away with it. I completely agree with PP's position on this. ABC truly has been hindering things, and they did everything else they are being accused of. The worst of which being cancelling the shows in the first place.

PP's claim that ABC signed the actors playing them in long-term deals, making their return to OLTL even more difficult is ridiculous. They got the characters back when they demanded them back, the only thing they couldn't get was the actors to agree to return, in RH's case sign on long term but that's not something ABC has any control over. If ABC bringing back the actors as new characters is the reason why PP is suing like I suspect, they need to suck it up and accept that they will have to recast the roles.

i get that prospect park would be angry about those characters being killed off. BUT it's a soap opera. Hope and Cole's body were never found...Write an intricately improbable story where they are found and come back?!

I loved those OLTL actors/characters on GH as the new team successfully wove them into the stories. I have no interest in the return of Stephen Clay or the vampire story, I loved Starr with Michael, and Todd is a hoot. I hope this pissing match is over soon and we get back to the business of storytelling.

I fail to see how GH keeping Llanview and its citizens alive in the hearts and minds of soap fans was damaging to Prospect Park's efforts to relaunch OLTL, regardless of how the characters were written. As a writer, I would see writing OLTL around what happened on GH as a creative challenge rather than a lawsuit.

People still really watch these stupid shows???Guess some people don't have enough drama in their lives and need to feedon others drama. Like I care if some rich *itch om the soaps has another mystery baby LOL NOT!!!

Abc Once Again continues to anger fans with there actions I am so glad I shut the channel off my tube and will continue to that is so wrong hope PP Wins sad how abc toying with PP and fans won't give abc the satisfaction of watching GH even though I like it Nope Glad OLTL And AMC back